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County gained another 16 cases in last week

POLK COUNTY—Polk County had topped 100 cases of COVID-19 on Monday with 101 cases, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Later Monday evening Polk County officials said there were another 7 cases, but the exact number was not known as of press time Tuesday.

Last Monday, the county had 85 cases and grew slowly over the week.

As of last Friday, Polk County had 99 positive cases, with 68 of those presumed recovered and 4 deaths.

The county had completed 2,217 total tests, with 1,928 of those tests negative and 150 tests pending. Polk County has completed a total of 633 drive-thru tests.

Of the county’s positive tests, 59.6 percent have been female and 40.4 percent male.

Of the positives, more than 40 have been in persons aged 65 and older; almost 30 have been persons aged 25-49; almost 20 have been persons aged 50-64 and about 5 each have been persons aged 0-17 and 18-24, according to county statistics.

As of Tuesday afternoon, North Carolina had 89,484 cases, which was more than 2,000 cases more than on Monday afternoon. As of Tuesday there were 1,040 people currently hospitalized, according to the NCDHHS. The state has completed 1,254,846 tests.

As of Tuesday, Buncombe County had 928 positive cases and 40 deaths (an increase of 9 deaths from Monday’s totals); Henderson County had 973 cases and 51 deaths; Rutherford County had 415 cases and 10 deaths and Transylvania County had 58 cases and 1 death, according to the NCDHHS.

As of Monday, Polk County was trending per capita higher than most western North Carolina counties. Polk County’s rate per 10,000 people was 49 as of Monday, compared to Buncombe County at a rate of 35; Transylvania County at a rate of 15; Jackson County at a rate of 48; Clay County at a rate of 14; Cherokee County at a rate of 28; Graham County at a rate of 12; Haywood County at a rate of 21; Madison County at a rate of 8; Yancey County at a rate of 34; Mitchell County at a rate of 37 and Avery County at a rate of 17.

Western North Carolina counties at a higher rate than Polk as of Monday included Macon at a rate of 93; Swain at a rate of 50; Henderson County at a rate of 81; Rutherford County at a rate of 59; McDowell County at a rate of 70 and Cleveland County at a rate of 54, according to the NCDHHS.

As of Monday afternoon, most of Polk’s cases have been in the Tryon zip code at 36 cases; 27 in the Columbus zip code; 24 in the Saluda zip code (4 deaths) and 17 in the Mill Spring zip code, according to the NCDHHS.